The Racism of Low Expectations

Tuesday

Jul 23, 2013 at 5:10 PMJul 23, 2013 at 10:20 PM

Tom’s latest screed, and a lot of the Martin coverage by the left, reminds me of Walid Nabash’s work in the mid 70′s when he tried to explain why so many white liberals were enamored of black terrorist groups like the Black Panthers. He ultimately concluded, interestingly for a McGovern supporter, that liberals seem to have a soft spot for losers, or at least people perceived as losers, and that the losers are thus elevated to a higher plane by the mere claim of being beaten down. So, he concluded, there is a racism of low expectations, that if you perceive someone as inferior because of his race, you will vote for an incompetent black person over a competent white person, all the while calling everyone else a racist. Or I guess it would apply that such people would feel warmth for a black teenager smashing a white guy’s head against the sidewalk. Of course, Nabash noted that there had to be some intrinsic or perceived guilt involved, and the fact that 90% of Americans today had no ancestor living in America at the time of slavery makes one wonder where the guilt come from. At the end of his book, Nabash noted that, to his chagrin, the drowning of the Pharoh’s forces in the Red Sea never led to a spate of elected Egyptian-born officials in the United States. I wonder what Nabash would make of Obama and Martin, two losers who seem to be cult figues of the loony left.

Rob Meltzer

Tom’s latest screed, and a lot of the Martin coverage by the left, reminds me of Walid Nabash’s work in the mid 70′s when he tried to explain why so many white liberals were enamored of black terrorist groups like the Black Panthers. He ultimately concluded, interestingly for a McGovern supporter, that liberals seem to have a soft spot for losers, or at least people perceived as losers, and that the losers are thus elevated to a higher plane by the mere claim of being beaten down. So, he concluded, there is a racism of low expectations, that if you perceive someone as inferior because of his race, you will vote for an incompetent black person over a competent white person, all the while calling everyone else a racist. Or I guess it would apply that such people would feel warmth for a black teenager smashing a white guy’s head against the sidewalk. Of course, Nabash noted that there had to be some intrinsic or perceived guilt involved, and the fact that 90% of Americans today had no ancestor living in America at the time of slavery makes one wonder where the guilt come from. At the end of his book, Nabash noted that, to his chagrin, the drowning of the Pharoh’s forces in the Red Sea never led to a spate of elected Egyptian-born officials in the United States. I wonder what Nabash would make of Obama and Martin, two losers who seem to be cult figues of the loony left.